When Finley is not researching, he takes time out to write recommendations for past students and to give guest lectures at Stanford and Oberlin. The former Classics professor has also delivered many Commencement speeches, including addresses at Harvard, Wellesley and Smith.

Turning down posts offered by other schools, most professors emeriti remained at Harvard after their retirement because the University and their work here had become the center of their lives.

Since his wife's death two years ago, Finley says that "study has meant everything to me." Finley says he never looked elsewhere for post-retirement employment.

"I don't know what I'd do without this place," the classics expert says, "Harvard is my life, quite purely and simply."

Ford Professor of Social Sciences Emeritus David Riesman '31 says that he considered teaching elsewhere after he was compelled to retire in 1980, but he too feels that Harvard is like home.

"My whole life really revolved around this area and these colleagueships," he says. "No inducements of weather or opulence would tempt me [to leave]."

Since his decision to remain in Cambridge, Riesman has remained busy as ever. Besides researching academic institutions, he serves on the executive board of the Kennedy School and has taken an active role on President Derek C. Bok's panel on evaluating teaching. In 1984, he served on a national commission working to strengthen university presidential leadership.

Despite his multitude of commitments, Riesman still has time to deliver spot lectures, write recommendations, and advise doctoral students. He sums up his retirement by saying, "My life has changed very little."

Between his weekly lecture, Warburg Professor of Economics Emeritus John Kenneth Galbraith still finds time to write more than ever before. "I spent a lot of time writing before [retirement], and I've spent a lot of time writing since," says the 78-year-old former ambassador to India.

During the past twelve years he has written numerous books and narrated a 13-program British Broadcasting Company series based on his book "The Age of Uncertainty," which took three-and-a-half years to produce.

Recently, Galbraith's economic views have scared investors across the country. In the January issue of "The Atlantic Monthly," the famed ecomomics expert wrote an article drawing disturbing parallels between the 1929 bull market and today's roaring stock exchange. The links include the emergence of speculators, the creation of new financial vehicles that rely heavily on debt, and the hero worship of Wall St. financiers.

Retirement Ain't So Bad

Although most of the professors retired on their own accord, none would have done so without continued access to their offices and Harvard facilities.

"The key to a fair and rewarding outcome is the offering of an opportunity to retired professors to continue research and writing," says Freund, who has a large office just to the left of the entrance on the ground floor of Langdell Hall. From this room cluttered with tons of law papers, magazines, and books, Freund has a ground-level view of Holmes Field.

"The privilege of retaining one's office and access to research facilities makes all the difference," he says.